The Truth Hurts

Des Moines, Iowa -- Alec MacGillis of The New Republichas taken a two-by-four to the local Iowa press for its kid-glove, homegal-makes-good treatment of incipient possible senatorial lunatic Joni Ernst. He takes the long view of how the corporate bean counters who now run local newspapers have so devastated their properties that local political coverage barely qualifies as journalism any more, and that the various Sasquatches of the national press come parachuting in and develop their own fascination with life among the natives, and what we get is incurious coverage that rewards the superficial and that values tactics over substance.

Meanwhile, the paper [Des Moines Register] has come under strong criticism from Iowa Democrats and liberals for its coverage of the Senate race, which has featured strikingly scant scrutiny of Ernst's aforementioned remarks and positions. From my checks of Nexis, I found just two Register articles about Ernst's impeachment comments; zero articles about her comments attacking the social safety net (one editorial mentioned them); zero articles about her pledge to take up her Smith & Wesson against an overweening government; zero articles about her Agenda 21 warnings; one article about her support for nullification of federal laws; and zero mentions of her comments at a summit organized by the Koch Brothers in which she thanked them and their financial backers for having "really started my trajectory" in politics. By contrast, I counted five Register articles featuring Braley's comments about Grassley not having a law degree.

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MacGillis also points out that, in a state that has an outsized influence on American politics, God knoweth why, it might be good if Iowa's flagship newspaper has more than one political reporter covering everything. Already, I'm hearing that MacGillis is getting roasted from the people who are trying very hard to avoid thinking about waking up tomorrow morning and realizing they've enabled the rise of an outright crackpot. (Here's one of those useless "fact-checks" in which Ernst's connections to the Kochs is soft-pedaled to the point of silliness.) Tough. A day late and a few million short, I'd say.